(click to enlarge)
The terrific map above comes from a German government agency known in suitably lengthy Teutonic fashion as the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (but mercifully shortened as the BBSR in its native language). For the first time, explains the BBSR, researchers have analyzed population trends throughout Europe—43 countries in all—down to a very granular geographic segment known bureacratically as the "local administrative unit, level 2," or LAU-2 for short.
The size and nature of the LAU-2 varies from country to country. Most are known as municipalities—basically a town or a city. In France, though, they rely on "communes," of which there are almost 37,000, hence the pointillist appearance of that country's data. Ireland, meanwhile, is divided into a tenth as many electoral districts (exactly what they sound like), while Lithuania is split into just 518 "elderships" (uh, click the link), explaining its chunkier look.
Whatever unit you use, though, the trends are clear. With red showing growth and blue showing a decline, you can see that there's a mass exodus from most of Eastern Europe over the covered decade, with only capital cities showing any kind of population increase. Most of Western Europe, meanwhile, has seen a boom, though there are notable exceptions, like northwestern Spain.
One very interesting feature is the pattern in the former East Germany. There, almost the entire country has shrunk except for Berlin, which has exploded, suburbs included. You'll notice the same phenomenon across most of Europe's major cities: Madrid, Vienna, Budapest, Warsaw, and many more.
This pattern is also one that's very familiar in the United States and around the globe: As the post-modern era marches on, more and more people are congregating in urban areas. It's a development the world will have to contend with for some time, and this map throws one important slice of that transformation into stark relief.
(Via CityLab/Kottke.org)